decided a former student killed her roommate in self-defense. could it be the end of the twinkie and ho-ho? the business decision that could change the face of america's snack food. good afternoon, i'm pat lawson muse. >> i'm jim handly. a school bus flips in maryland today. this is the view now from chopper 4 of a montgomery school bus. this crash happened around 1:30 this afternoon right here on maryland route 97 near rolling hills drive. police tell us a car clipped the bus, causing it to flip onto its side. one student was on board at the time and was not hurt. both drivers suffered minor injuries. there's no word on which driver was at fault. the ntsb has arrived at the scene of a tragedy in texas. last night a freight train slammed into a parade float carrying wounded veterans and their families. four men who served our country were killed in that crash.

nbc's jay gray is live now in midland, texas, where some service members rushed to help save lives just seconds after the impact. jay? >> reporter: yeah, jim, you're right, heroes here. it began as a celebration to honor our nation's heroes but in a matter of minutes at the intersection behind me, it shifted to chaos. now it's giving way to a weekend of mourning here. it stood almost like a memorial to the fallen. not the kind that was planned or that anyone wants to see. >> it was tragic. it was devastating. >> reporter: the twisted metal of a flatbed trailer and the train that smashed into a veterans parade slowly pulled away. but the horror here still lingers. >> it was a chaotic scene. it was loud. it was noisy. people were panicking. >> reporter: it started as a picture-perfect day. but that picture changed dramatically. in just a matter of seconds. >> we need an ambulance on the south side of the railroad tracks!

>> reporter: medics could not save four of the soldiers. one of those staff sergeant joshua michael, the recipient of two purple hearts, pushed his wife off the trailer just before impact. she survived the crash. he did not. >> these guys are true american heroes. >> reporter: being honored for their service and sacrifice by a group called show of support, that sponsored a parade and hunting trip before it went horribly wrong. >> our mission is to determine the probable cause of the accident. >> reporter: 16 ntsb agents are on the ground now and say their investigation here could continue for ten days or more. but for so many, this tragedy will last so much longer. >> i haven't slept since yesterday. and i don't feel like i want to sleep, because i i'm thinking that i'm going to have nightmares over what i saw. >> reporter: a national nightmare still playing out in the plains of west texas. and back to the investigation. now, agents just getting their

first look at video from an event recorder on the train. and a dashboard camera onside a sheriff's vehicle. both were rolling at the time of the crash. live in midland, texas, i'm jay gray, news4. a developing story now, rescue teams are searching for two missing workers after an explosion at an oil production platform in the gulf of mexico. the fire is out now but four people with critical burns were rushed to a hospital. the platform is about 25 miles off the coast of grand isle, louisiana. the facility is owned by black elk energy. coast guard officials say initial reports indicate the explosion was sparked by a cutting torch. they also say the well was not producing, and that no oil is leaking. first on 4, we are now hearing the 911 calls from a murder case that shook bowie state university. alexis simpson was found not guilty on all counts. the former student testified that she didn't intentionally kill her roommate, dominique frazier. keith russell joins us from our

live news desk with our first look at the evidence the jurors considered during their deliberations. >> yes, pat, we have that evidence. you'll hear it here first. evidence that helped convince a jury that alexis simpson was not guilty of any of the seven charges from first-degree murder to involuntary manslaughter. simpson was accused of stabbing dominique phrase tore to death in september of last year. they got into a fight in their dormitory over loud music. defense attorneys said simpson was bullied and fighting back when that stabbing happened. here's a portion of one of the 911 calls from the bowie state form after frazier was stabbed. take a listen. >> the caller you heard wasn't

the only one to call 911 that night. tracee wilkins has the 911 call from alexis simpson herself following her deadly fight with her roommate. it's coming up on news4 at 5:00. a 1-year-old girl at the center of an amber alert is now safe in protective custody today. police say she was kidnapped by her parents. officers say eric black and jennifer carlwile took their daughter on thursday. they were supposed to turn her over to social services. police found the mother and her girl in prince george's county. her father was arrested in chesterfield, virginia. both parents are in jail at this hour. the girl was not injured. taking a look live outside to the weather. the question today, will there be more cold for the weekend. >> yes, storm team 4 meteorologist veronica johnson is standing by with the answer to that question. it's a weekend, veronica, be good to us.

>> you're going to love the weekend forecast, how about that. you're really going to like it. there's no big storms coming our way for sure. now, this morning you probably thought that we were going to get a lot of rain because we were socked in with clouds. here we we at 10:00 with a lot of the clouds moving out of here. we've got a clear sky across the area. look at the satellite and radar, no rain falling around the area. 54 degrees right now over in college park. petworth at 53 degrees. franconia and springfield coming in at 51 degrees. chilly conditions. we're going to drop down to 45 by 9:00 p.m. under that clear sky. 42 degrees at 11:00 p.m. one terrific evening coming up. for tomorrow morning, we're going to talk about the big show in the night sky, and any chance of rai that we've got coming our way. i'll have the details. former cia director david petraeus told lawmakers today what he knew about the attack on

the u.s. consulate in benghazi. and he told lawmakers that the intelligence community chose not to disclose the al qaeda connection to the attack in order to avoid tipping off the terrorists. steve handelsman joins us now live from capitol hill with the special treatment congress gave to the retired general today. >> reporter: this is the big set of hearings, hi, jim, from the hill tonight. republicans are still charging that somebody played politics with what the public was told about benghazi. but petraeus testified that langly didn't do that. former cia director david petraeus kept out of sight until he got home. lawmakers had cleared the way for him to get to the closed-door hearing without walking through halls. a favorite of the general who apologized to lawmakers for his affair. petraeus testified the cia figured immediately it was al qaeda that attacked the sufficient consulate in

benghazi, killing the u.s. ambassador and three others. how the cia with an eye on libya missed the threat is still under investigation. but petraeus' testimony helped. >> it added to our ability to make judgments about what is clearly a failure of intelligence. >> reporter: it did not end the fight over u.n. ambassador susan rice, who, five days after the attack, denied it was al qaeda. using cia public talking points that dropped the al qaeda reference. >> and she did entirely the responsible thing in answering questions based on what was unclassified. >> reporter: but rice had a motive to spin the story on "meet the press." barack obama running for reelection, he might name her secretary of state. >> this is an administration led by a president who said when he ran for office that he would take the fight to al qaeda. we have decimated al qaeda. >> reporter: republicans still charge rice with distortion.

>> she knew at that point in time that al qaeda was very likely responsible in part or in the whole for the death of ambassador stevens. >> reporter: petraeus knew it was al qaeda. he agreed to put out the different account. but not, he said, for political reasons. petraeus told lawmakers the cia just wanted to keep secret what it knew, and how it knew it. but republicans up here are not buying that was rice's motive. i'm steve handelsman, news4, capitol hill. the white house says president obama had a constructive meeting today with congressional leaders about the looming fiscal cliff. the president met with top house and senate leaders for more than an hour this morning at the white house. they began talks of how to avert the cliff of automatic tax increases and spending cuts set to take effect january 1st. congressional leaders expressed confidence they could reach a deficit cutting deal before christmas.

the president also took a moment out during that financial meeting to talk with house speaker john boehner and wish him a happy birthday today. boehner turns 63 tomorrow. the president congratulated the speaker and shook his hand. he joked that the white house staff didn't get him a cake because they didn't know actually how many candles they would need. he gave boehner a birthday gift of a bottle of wine. a stunning security breach. mother who crashed through a gate and started driving down an air port runway with her child in the car. the frightening moment a driver plowed straight into a police officer. and the beltway becomes the santa express. how old st. nick took t

you ready tonight on news4 at 5:00, we're giving away tickets to hot 99 sold out jingle ball concert featuring justin bieber, casha, flo ridea, and psy gangnam style.

look for the secret star of the day, then enter the name on nbc washington for your chance to win. each day we're giving a pair of tickets for vip floor seats. and one winner will get a meet-and-greet with one of the jingle ball artists. in just a matter of hours, the brand-new 495 express lanes will be open to the public. but one very special driver got to take a test run on the new road today. megan mcgrath has more on what the project means for commuters in northern virginia. >> reporter: seeing santa claus apparently has its privileges. jolly st. nick was the first person to test drive the 495 express lanes this morning. and he had a pretty sweet ride. he ditched the reindeer and went for a convertible tessla roadster. in white, of course. >> smooth, straight, convenient. it is just absolutely incredible. >> reporter: santa used the express lanes to get to his day job over at the tysons corner

center mall. he starts sitting with the kids today and starting saturday, you, too, can ride. crews began opening the new lanes tonight. they should be ready to go around 2:00 a.m. >> if you were out around midnight, what you see is the police blocking entry points. crews taking down the signs, and you'll see all the systems begin to turn on as we turn on the system. by the time everybody's up tomorrow morning, the 495 express lanes will be open. >> reporter: if you plan to use the express lanes, you need an ez-pass. everything is electronic. overhead gantryes will be on as you drive by. the toll could be $1 a mile at times. but you're promised a smooth commute. they expect them to run between 45 to 55 miles an hour during rush hour. to reduce congestion, the cost of the toll will rise when the lanes get crowded. the idea is to price some drivers out, keeping them on the regular lanes. fewer cars on the express lanes means faster speeds.

if you want to use the express lanes, but you don't want to pay the toll, there's a way to do that. you can car pool. you just need three or more people in the vehicle with you. you'll also need one of those ez-pass flex transponders. megan mcgrath, news4. news4 transportation reporter adam tuss also took a test drive on the express lanes today. he'll have more on what you need to know, including how they plan to enforce the hov rules. that's coming up at 5:00. ladies and gentlemen, one, two, me! >> woo! >> the always humble steven colbert unveiled his new wax. he donated his suit, tie, cuff links and lapel pin to make the figure look more authentic. the wax figure itself is based

on 250 measurements and photographs. hear more of what colbert had to say on at 6:00 tonight. they've got the arched eyebrow to it, too. >> that's good. >> that's him. >> the colbert. >> make your brow do that. we have been kind of quiet for a while. we're stuck in this consistent pattern now, stuck in the doldrums, if you will. but i like being stuck. we'll be stuck there through next week. let's head on over. when do we get some clouds? are our temperatures going to rise highe for us? 53 is where we are right now, and yes, we didn't clear out. we cleared out early part of the day. we got up to 54. we're at 53 degrees right now wa clear sky, sunshine across our area. we've got 52 degrees over loudoun county in leesburg. prince william county, manassas, you're at 52 degrees.

charles county, 52 degrees. and 52 degrees in prince george's county around green belt. not a bad afternoon at all. there's your clouds moving out. a few left around western maryland. but for the most part, we're talking about a clear night. of course, that is a very good thing, with the leonid meteor showers. there's a look at the drizzle and light showers that we had mainly along i-95 in the early part of the day this morning. but now high pressure is overhead. so it's going to be a dry, chilly evening. look at the kind of sky we'll have as the meteor showers peak at 3:00 a.m. you can catch them anytime between midnight and the early morning hours. the pre-dawn hours tomorrow. we'll talk more about that coming up at 4:45. tomorrow, sunshine. and a high temperature around 55 degrees. then, yeah, that coastal storm that we've been watching for so long, we're just going to see a few clouds late sunday streaming in. even sunday now is looking like a mostly sunny day.

we're not going to pick up those clouds until late at night. and for monday then, cloud cover across the area. there's your northeasterly wind still with the area of low pressure off the coast. cloud cover on monday, probably still starting the day with a little bit of drizzle. and fog. until we maybe break out with a little bit of sunshine. chilly, but nice evening. 35 to 45 degrees with a light wind. tomorrow morning, a chilly start for us, 26 to 37 degrees. again, with just a light wind across the area. for tomorrow afternoon, we'll be somewhere around 51 to 55 degrees. another nice afternoon for us. it will be much like today. again, still cool with our average now running at 58 degrees. and then sunday at 1:00 p.m., as we take on the eagles forecast, clouds, sun, cool, but nice conditions. so here's that consistent forecast that i spoke of. low to mid-50s all the way into the early part of next week. a few additional clouds on monday.

a look at wednesday, travel, what do we get. i'll have that coming up in a few. a man accused of stealing a guy's bike gets worse punishment than jail time. i'm liz crenshaw. is it better to buy that thanksgiving turkey fresh or frozen? that's the question. the answer's coming up

ready for the holidays? should you buy that turkey fresh or frozen? is it safe to cook stuffing in your turkey? and is pink turkey really safe to eat? liz crenshaw joins us now with the gobble gobble edition of "ask liz" today. >> you do not want to ask these questions on thanksgiving more. just ask them now and get them over with. >> getting a head start here. the first one comes in from patty in vienna. what's the difference between buying your turkey fresh and frozen? and how far in advance can you buy the fresh turkey? >> my sister asked me that question today actually. the department of agriculture helped us with this answer. it says if you buy a frozen turkey, you want to get it well in advance of your meal. but if you have an old bird

that's been in the freezer for years, it may simply not taste gas as fresh. use the frozen turkey within a year for the best taste. the usda said frozen turkeys are safe to eat years later. just make sure to start thawing the turkey in time for the thanksgiving dinner. if you prefer a fresh bird, wait until tuesday before thanks giving to buy it. by the way, some grocery stores do let you reserve that fresh turkey ahead of time. their refrigerators are colder and more consistent than yours at home. leaving it at the grocery is good to know. >> on to the stuffing. the question is, do you stuff the bird or do you cook the stuffing or dressing as some call in a separate casserole dish? >> usda helped us answer this as well. it does recommend that you cook your stuffing outside the bird in a separate dish in the oven. the problemis, sometimes the turkey is done before the stuffing reaches a safe temperature, if it's inside. whether you cook that stuffing in a dish or in the turkey, you've got to use a meat thermometer to check the

temperature. safely cooked stuffing must reach 165 degrees. by the way, for safety's sake, the turkey itself must reach 165 degrees. place the thermometer in the innermost part of the turkey thigh. don't use the pop-ups, just use a thermometer. >> 165, the magic number. consumers want to know if pink turkey meat is safe. when we see it pink, and we often do -- >> usda again helped us with this answer. it says that the color of cooked poultry, like turkey, is not always a sure sign that it's safe. the only way to know your turkey is safe, again, is to use a food thermometer. make sure it's reached the safe 165-degree fahrenheit. the meat of smoked turkey is always pink. so you should never be alarmed in this case. we put lots more thanksgiving turkey tips online. just go to nbcwashington.com, and search turkey tips. they're all there. if you have a question you would

like us to consider at "ask liz," go to nbcwashington.com, and connect with me on twitter, and on facebook by searching the consumer watch. at 5:00 tonight, how long does it take to defrost that frozen turkey? once defrosted, how long do you cook it? we have all the answers at 5:00. >> if i'm a guest, there's no leftovers. >> no worries. >> i'm a vacuum. liz, we'll see you at 5:00. good answers tonight. a world without twinkies or ho-hoes? the snack food crisis that's the talk of the nation right now. a police officer survived a terrifying crash. what sent another car barreling right into him.

welcome back at 4:30, everybody. i'm jim handly. >> i'm pat lawson muse. federal investigators are on the scene of a tragedy in midland, texas. four u.s. war veterans were killed when a train slammed into a parade float yesterday. one of the soldiers shoved his wife off the float just before impact, saving her life. 16 other people were injured. lawmakers say former cia chief david petraeus provided some clarity today when he testified at a closed hearing up

on capitol hill on the attack on the u.s. consulate in benghazi. petraeus said the cia knew al qaeda was to blame, but did not want to make the information public to avoid tipping off the terrorists. well, it could be the end of an era for some of america's most popular snack food. >> as mark barger reports, hostess, the company behind the likes of twinkies and ho hos, is going out of business. >> reporter: it's twilight for the twinkies, ding dongs are done. and wonder bread's toast. >> what are my kids going to do for lunch? >> reporter: minus the munchies they grew up on after hostess brands announced it's going out of business. >> i spent three years in vietnam, and they were sending me hostess twinkies, cupcakes. >> reporter: faced with increased labor costs and a trend toward healthier eating, hostess filed for bankruptcy protection in january. the second time in the past decade. but when its striking bakers

union refused wage and pension concessions by a thursday deadline, hostess decided to shut down. >> 30% of our work force has put 18,500 people out of a job. it's a consequence, not a threat. a consequence of the strike. >> reporter: 30 hostess plants around the country closed immediately. more than 500 distribution centers and 500 bakery outlet centers will soon follow. >> it breaks my heart. it really does. my heart bleeds for all my brothers and sisters here. >> reporter: bakery union members like these in philadelphia blame company mismanagement, citing labor concessions years earlier that had failed to turn hostess around. >> they don't care about people's families, or the people here. people here gave them everything. >> reporter: but after turning out breads and snack foods since 1930, hostess will sell off the assets including the iconic brand names. >> it won't be right without hostess. >> reporter: maybe ensuring that ho hos are not history. mark barger, nbc news.

other familiar brands that are part of that -- keep your hands off these, pat. it includes dolly madison, nature's pride and drake's cupcakes. coming up at 5:00 tonight, pat collins has more on how hostess fans are reacting now that the company is shutting its doors. we have props here that are really props, except for the twinkies, which our newsroom devours them. >> these may be the lasts ones around. these are my favorites. >> and somebody, pat collins, brought in a box of snow balls, which i had never had. i took one bite and tossed it. somebody described it as tasting like a mattress. i called to complain, but their website said they were shut down. veronica, which ones did you eat? >> it's funny, i haven't had one in all honesty, doug did hover me one. i think it's ironic that only when something is really going away for good that you want to try it, right? you're like, well, i won't be able to ever get it.

>> that's right. >> i have to try it. save me one. >> all right. i'll save you several. >> all right. let's take a look outside and see what's going on. gorgeous sunset right now. take a look at our gaylord national resort camera. you can see the beautiful sky looking toward the woodrow wilson bridge there. current temperatures, upper 40s already. montgomery county, gaithersburg, to low 50s across the area. 55 degrees right now down around areas of fredericksburg, stafford county, spotsylvania county, hanging on to 55 degrees. overnight we'll drop down again to the low 30s, upper 20s west. 37 degrees right in d.c. so that means that you'll not only need a chair, but a blanket and coat to take in the leonid showers. former washington mystics player is facing assault charges. police in atlanta say she turned herself in late last night on an arrest warrant. she's accused of attacking her

former girlfriend and teammate jennifer lacy earlier this week. lacy said she smashed her car windows with a baseball bat and shot into her suv. lacy was not injured. her bond is set at $100,000. she'll be back in the courtroom at the end of the month. after more than two hours on lockdown, a minneapolis office building is now reopened. police received a report of possible shots fired inside that building this morning. hundreds of workers were told to shelter in place while s.w.a.t. officers searched that office building. the building is part of the target campus, and is also across the street from the retailer's main headquarters. officers found no evidence of a shooting. a routine traffic stop took a frightening turn for a police officer in wisconsin. his cruiser was hit head-on. the whole thing was caught on the patrol car's dash cam. take a look. wow, that happened saturday when an augusta police officer pulled over a woman on this highway.

the officer then walked back to his vehicle, and even looked over his shoulder as a precaution. he climbed in his patrol car and seconds later another driver coming in the opposite direction crossed the median and hit him head-on. >> from that point on, it just was fractions of seconds of, oh, no, what do i do. somebody just hit me head-on. the first thing that popped into my brain was, i hope that guy's okay. >> that guy was a 71-year-old man. investigators say he may have suffered some kind of a medical emergency behind the wheel. he wasn't injured. but the officer is recovering from bruised ribs and injured back and neck. he is expected to be back at work in a few weeks. in florida, there's a debate today over street justice. keith kirk is a homeless man who admits he stole an expensive bicycle from outside a convenience store in ft. lauderdale. when the owner caught up with

kirk, he delivered his own version of street justice. he tackled kirk, beat him so badly, the bicycle thief was left with two black eyes, several cuts, one of which required stitches. the sun sentinel reports that he was making a citizens arrest and did not use excessive force. holiday shopping goes high-tech. coming up, is it really safe to pay using your cell phone and other mobile devices? my mommy is having a seizure. i thought i could call you guys. >> the quick thinking 4-year-old girl who saved her mom's life.

thanksgiving is less than a week away now. and we're getting geared up for our annual food for families food drive. all day on monday. today, the magnet nurses at georgetown university hospital are in the midst of their annual campaign to collect cans for the drive. >> you know it's thanksgiving when these nurses at georgetown hospital get busy collecting cans. >> yea! >> it's a collecting marathon. the goal? 7,200 cans in 72 hours. >> we've had donations from patients of families who come through because we're taking cash donations as well.

but nurses and physicians and anybody else that works in the hospital. >> the cans, boxes, packages and donations began coming in on wednesday. by mid-morning today, the nurses were well on their way. >> we just did a tally and we have 4,154 cans. >> yea! >> just a few more to go. >> just a few more to go. >> it's so important to us in terms of giving back to the community with which -- from where our patients come from. we provide extraordinary care inside the four walls but we're very interested in our patients outside the four walls as well. >> the food comes in by the bags, boxes, even by wheelchair, all of it given straight from the heart. >> i have been so blessed in my life i just want to give back and help those in any way that i can. so this is just a very little token to help those out. >> and what's on the menu? >> i brought a whole variety of things. macaroni and cheese, canned

vegetables, some gravy, stuffing mixes, lots of different stuff. >> there are spam, yams, green beans, baked beans, jell-o, tempura, tuna, and of course, stuffing. everything you might have a taste for for thanksgiving dinner. >> we just got some cash donations to help. and from baked beans. >> and they all get a good feeling just knowing that all of this food is headed for the table for some very grateful families. and we will be collecting nonperishable foods along with cash and check donations monday at the verizon center, all day monday. i'll be out there from 6:00 in the morning to 6:00 at night. come down and see us, or give us a call or make donations online at nbcwashington.com, just search food for families. and we certainly hope you will participate this year. >> you make it easy every year for everybody just to either go down there, go online or call us. we'll have the phone bank up here. you'll be out there.

>> great cause. >> 12 hours. >> thousands of families get to eat at thanksgiving because we do this every year. that's why we do it. >> and the demand is bigger than ever. coming up next, making a list and checking it twice. veronica, how is the weekend shaping up? >> aok. today was gorgeous. take a look behind me. this is tomorrow, 52 to 56 degrees across the area. and we're not going to be starting tomorrow with any clouds. how long can we keep this up? i'll tell you when news4 at 4:00 returns.

talking about showers. not those kinds of showers. this is it. >> the dry showers, the kind that makes kids, even adults go ooh, ah. it really is. >> the light show in the sky. >> it really is. when you see just one, most people go back inside. that's what we're talking about. look at the graphics. because it is tonight the annual leonid meteor showers. they peak at 3:00 a.m. but between midnight and the predawn hours, you will be able to catch them. i wanted to start by giving you a look at the overnight temperatures for tomorrow morning. 27 degrees in frederick. 31 in leesburg. 37 degrees in d.c. so here's the deal. again, it's going to be cold tonight. if you're going to be sitting out there for a while, you'll probably need on top of your coat a blanket. but you want to look east, and look straight up. on average we'll probably see about ten per hour.

and then there's another peak which is we have another coming up on tuesday morning. again, these meteors associated with the comet temple tuttle from way, way, way back when. all right. let's take a look at things right now. we're at 53 degrees as the sun sets with a clear sky. dry air over us. dry conditions. cool conditions. we're going to keep those up. here's one of those images that i captured from nasa, courtesy of nasa. where you can see just all the meteors just kind of bombarding the earth's atmosphere. really cool stuff. hopefully you'll get a chance to get out tonight. all right. here's a look at what we can expect for the next couple of hours. as we go into the overnight period, a clear sky for us. tomorrow morning we'll pick up some sunshine. and we'll pick up that sunshine not just here in maryland, d.c. and virginia, but all the way north into pennsylvania. south on sunday, we're going to see a few clouds from that area of low pressure. so that by the time we get into monday, those clouds will be

moving in. as far as travel on monday, though, from the area of low pressure, drizzle, a little up to our north, up around pennsylvania, new jersey, and a little bit of wind. but no rain right now expected. the high 52 degrees. as we look towards thanksgiving and travel, too, warmer air will be over us. higher temperatures 58 and breezy on wednesday. 60 degrees right now on thanksgiving day. it's looking aok for all of next week. guys? >> we love it. thanks, veronica. expect to find a lot of shoppers armed with their smartphone this holiday season. and as nbc's chris clackum explains now, they'll be doing more than looking at e-mails at the checkout counter. >> reporter: retail experts expect smartphone carrying christmas shoppers to be as common as candy cane. but more so this year than years past will be paying with a smartphone. >> the first holiday season where digital wallets have really been deployed in force. >> reporter: led by companies

like square and paypal, mobile payment technology has taken off. even bank of america offers its own card swiping attachments. but with credit card theft and fraud as widespread as ever, some customers might be asking, is it safe? >> the short answer is, yes, it is very safe, reliable and in many ways more convenient and more useful way of engaging in a credit card transaction. >> reporter: the ceo at the electronic transaction association that represents visa, mastercard and about 500 other companies, says in some instances mobile payments are safer. >> when you're using, for example, a cloud based digital wallet, that information is not even stored on the phone itself. it's in the cloud. you're accessing it on your phone but the information about your credit card is not physically stored on your phone. >> reporter: that's why predictions about the mobile payment industry are also at cloud level. >> and we will reach the point over the course of the next decade where consumers will use

their mobile phones as payment devices more often than those plastic credit cards that they've been carrying around for the last 50 years. >> reporter: and with more smartphones than people right now, it could happen even sooner. chris clackum, nbc news. >> she's too young to have a cell phone. >> that's trouble. there are also apps for your cell phone to help you find the deals this season. the black friday survival guide lets you search for the best deals and create your own shopping list. shop savvy uses a camera on your phone to scan bar codes and find the best in-store and online prices. iphone and android users can both use discount calculators to estimate ahead of time how much things will cost and how much you'll save. find my car uses gps to help you locate your vehicles in crowded mall parking lots. i need that one. >> i like that. that's the tough challenge sometimes.

>> yes. coming up on news4 at 4:00, how a mother was able to drive onto an airport runway with her child in the car.

breaking news right now. a missouri man charged with plotting to shoot up a movie theater. police say the 20-year-old admitted he wanted to open fire at a "twilight" screening this weekend. >> officers say they were tipped off by the man's mother who became concerned that her son had bought weapons similar to

the weapons used in the colorado theater shooting. we'll have more on that story as we get it. phoenix police believe a mother was on drugs when she crashed through an airport gate and drove onto a runway with her 3-year-old in the car. officers used their vehicles to spin the car around and stop it. 20-year-old coco anderson wasn't hurt and neither was her son who was in the car seat. officers report that anderson was so impaired, she didn't even know that the child was with her. air traffic control immediately stopped all flights when she crashed through that gate. up next, a quick-thinking 4-year-old who saved her mother's life.

a 4-year-old girl in virginia saved her mother's life just by picking up the telephone. her mom has a history of seizures, and as joel hilton reports, her parents taught her exactly what to do in case of an emergency. >> what's your emergency? >> reporter: it's a call no one ever wants to make. but back in september the family in newport news was placed in this situation where they needed help fast. >> 911, what is your emergency? >> my mommy is having a seizure. so i thought i can call you guys. and i'm 4. i call people. i need you to help me. >> okay. your mommy's having a what? >> a seizure.

>> reporter: the voice you're hearing is 4-year-old jayla. her mom has a history of seizures. that morning her dad was at work leaving her home with mom. when trouble started, jayla knew exactly what to do. >> i do have the medic coming to you, okay? >> okay. >> can you just tell me what you're doing right now? >> she's crying and stuff. >> can you see if she's breathing? >> not breathing. >> she is? >> no, she's not breathing. >> she was calm as a cucumber. she did so good. she was very polite. she listened to directions very well. >> reporter: sarah sledge is a dispatcher in training. learning on the job and learning from jayla what she needed to know to help her mom. >> i think every parent should look to her parents, because they taugts her so young. >> reporter: so young and so important according to her parents to start early. teaching children about what to do during an emergency. >> it was very instrumental for us to start at the age that we started. >> reporter: as you can see, the story turns out good in the end. the only issue jayla had that

morning -- >> it's hard to open the door. >> can you open the door? >> sure. i don't know how to open doors. >> you don't know how to open the door? >> no. >> did you finally get it open? when you opened it up, what happened? >> they came in. >> jayla was also recognized by the newport news fire department. they said they are so proud she knows what to do if something happens again. now at 5:00, a story you'll hear first on 4. key evidence in the bowie state murder trial. right now at 5:00, you'll hear the dramatic 911 call from the bowie state student. a scary sight, a montgomery county school bus overturns in a crash. the express lanes open tomorrow in virginia. but there's a lot you need to know. good evening on this friday. i'm wendy rieger. >> i'm jim handly. first at 5:00 tonight, shock and dismay on the campus of bowie

state university after a not-guilty verdict. a jury acquitted alexis simpson in the murder of her roommate, dom neeks frazier. tracee wilkins joins us live from campus with the 911 calls from that violent attack. >> reporter: yes, we did speak with students today at bowie state university. it was very difficult to find students who didn't have a problem with the way this trial ended yesterday. but what we have now is new information about exactly what happened that night after the stabbing. the 911 tapes, and in these tapes you can hear alexis simpson talking to students there in the dorm just seconds after stabbing her roommate. now, we want you to know that some folks may consider some of these calls to be graphic in nature. roerpt the voice you hear on this 911 call is is that of